Continuity: Talitha (Cosmic Chain)

Age: A few million years

Species: Sheep

Fur Color: Gray

Eye Color: Teal

District: East

Player: Crim

Talitha derives from the 8th Pantheon of Gods that reside over the Universe. They are creators, fortune tellers, and magicians. Modern man would come to know these 12 Pantheons as the Chinese Zodiac.

But these gods are, in fact, “mortal” to an extent. They are beings of energy that eventually fade from existence and recycle themselves into a new form every several billion years. Gods spend their lives expending energy into the universe to create, destroy, and manipulate according to whatever job their specific house undertakes. (For example, some houses focus on creation, others focus on destruction, others focus on dreams.) When they expel all their energy they “die” and a new god must be created to take its place.

To obtain a successor, the gods harvest used energy from living creatures, dying stars, etc. The energy is reformed and given a will of its own. If it is able to will itself into existence, then it has the chance to become a full-fledged god. (Full fledged gods are simply those who have mastered the skill of their specific house.) Those who fail at willing themselves into existence are given a mortal form and live their lives as regular mortals. Once their mortal self dies, the energy is then pulled back into the universe and they are given another chance to ascend.

Talitha started as one of those formless beings of will. But unfortunately for her, she was unable to will herself to exist for quite some time. (A few billion years) Instead her will began to manipulate the space around her and created planets, stars, and an entire galaxy. The tiny seed of will landed on a lifeless rock (Later known as the Planet Capella) and only then did she will herself into existence.

It was unusual for some beings to create things before coming into being, so they kept a close eye on her from a distance to see what she would do next.

After roaming through the world for many years, Talitha became lonely and began to "cry". She didn’t know why she was on the planet or why it was so barren. (Unbeknownst to her, Her tears provided the water the world needed in order to begin life.) Saddened by her lack of purpose and lack of company, Talitha willed herself to sleep for thousands of years.

When she awoke, she found the world to be bustling and full of people. Talitha had created life! The gods were amazed and perplexed that she managed to create life at such a “young” age. When asked how she managed to do so, she didn’t have an answer. She didn’t know how she had managed to create it. So she was given the task by her mother, Andromeda, to wander the world and figure out how she had created life. In doing so the gods hoped that she would understand what it would mean to be a God of the 8th Pantheon—the Trine of Creating Life.

Talitha began her quest near the mountain village of Lyrae, the sacred home of dragons. She wandered into the village and tried to speak with the locals but no one could see her because she lacked a physical form. After hours of wandering she stumbled upon a hut in the outskirts where one dragon was digging for clay. This dragon was able to sense Talitha’s presence and offered her a place inside. The dragons name was Eltanin—a Light Dragon with a mysterious intuition. Eltanin coaxed Talitha to speak to her. Talitha began to look around the hut for how to accomplish that, and after seeing pictures of Eltanin and her family, Talitha willed herself a physical form so she could speak.

After listening to Talitha’s story, Etlanin decided to go with her on her journey. This… may partly be because Talitha picked a physical form that greatly resembled Eltanin’s daughter.

They decide to head for the next closest destination with a plethora of people, through Porrima Forest to the magic city of Pleione.

As they head through Porrima Forest the two encounter strange black creatures which seem to devour energy. These creatures are scions of destruction which harvest energy from living things, worlds, or entire galaxies. They are sent from the 3rd Trine to harvest energy from dying worlds. So that means, for some reason Talitha’s world his dying and begun the process of recycling while she was asleep. The only chance to spare it would be to find out how to create life and try to use that power to restore the world.

The two fight them off and proceed to the city.

+World Summary

Talitha hails from a fantasy setting where there are gods that influence all happenings in the universe. They create worlds, destroy worlds, and wander in and out of every plane of existence. But most of the story takes place on the planet that Talitha has created, called Capella.

The creatures on Capella resemble the gods in which they failed to become, so the world is filled with anthropomorphic creatures from the Zodiac. (Anthro dragons, pigs, etc..) The ones who were closer to having become gods themselves may have special powers indicative of the house which they hail from. ( For example, Eltanin is a dragon and she has the ability to sense consciousness. Dragons are the Trine of consciousness. Therefore, she was very close to becoming a god but she failed and was sent to Capella. )

The populace here have evolved to a point where their cities and homes resemble medieval architecture. Larger cities can have castles, ironworks, and large buildings, but smaller villages may have grass huts and large amounts of farmland. The land in Capella is divided into three separate Kingdoms that is each ruled by a monarchy. The land of Dragons, Lyrae, is it’s own independent providence that separates itself from all the kingdoms.

Each Kingdom in Capella has it’s own unique feel and style. The Kingdom to the West, Alkaid, Is filled with very sturdy and forceful people. They use large stones for their buildings and prefer simple and sturdy things as opposed to beautiful things. The Kingdom in the East, Sirius, is filled with artisans who spend their life in the details. Their buildings are built with intricate stonework and their method of governing is more complex than any other. The Kingdom to the South, Albiero, is the Kingdom of necessity. There are few resources here so the people spend their lives making their homes out of unexpected materials. Therefore there are many inventors in this kingdom.

Travelers can pass through one Kingdom to the next, but not without a certain level of scrutiny by its guards. Those who don’t have a reason may find themselves stuck in one country or another indefinitely.

But Capella isn’t the only location that exists in this universe, so I’ll briefly cover the others. As I mentioned before there are three Planes of Existence: The Mortal Plane, the Dream Plane, and the Ethereal Plane. These planes exist parallel to one another and can be access by gods and mortals alike.

The Mortal Plane is where all life exists and all the planets exist. This is where Mortals exist naturally and live out their lives. Sensations like touch, taste, and aging are exclusive to this plane.

The next plane is the Dream plane. The dream plane is meant as an atelier of experimentation where anything is possible. Think of it as the gods own little musebox where they can see all the characters in their own little AU settings. Mortals can access this plane by sleeping and gods can access it through the same means as they access the others. Full fledged gods can even manipulate dreams.

The last is the Ethereal plane. This is where the gods reside and create or influence all of existence. Mortals can only access this plane by death, then their ‘soul’, or life energy, would return to this plane.

The gods that preside over these universes are dedicated simply to their jobs unique to their houses. They don’t support one another in their endeavors and often times with undo another’s work. For example, the 3rd trine specializes in destruction and the 8th trine specializes in creation. The creators will constantly be trying to create things and the destroyers will constantly be trying to undo them. There..is some tension in the houses because of this, but each understands that the other is only doing what they are destined to do.

Since each house has a specific task, I figured I would list and explain them here. The pantheon is broken up into ‘Trine’s’ for each house.

Trine 1 - Rat – Cycle
Cycle is the most predictable of all houses. Cycle allows for repetition and for the beings/things in the universe to create patterns and predictability.

Trine 6 - Snake – Paradox
The oldest of all houses. Paradox is thought to be the original house where dark and light derived. Paradox manages the things of all things opposite, light and dark, life and death.

Trine 7 - Horse – Motion
The house of movement. Motion allows all things in the world to move and flow.

Trine 8 - Goat – Creation
Energy is created the moment something is created or destroyed. Allows for creation of things by consuming energy.

Trine 9 - Monkey – Inspiration
The house of creating new things and evolving current ideas. This house is the source for all elements and new things in existence

Trine 10 - Rooster – Time
The house of time manages the progression of all things. It allows creatures to age or planets to form.

Trine 11 - Dog – Emotions
The most unpredictable house, this house is the origin of emotions.

Trine 12 - Pig – Sensation
The house of physical touch. In charge of physical sensations, their favorite being taste.

Personality

At first Talitha can come off as a clueless dimwit. In reality, well, she is a clueless dimwit. Talitha does a lot of growing throughout the books in the series. At the canon point I’ve taken her from, after book 2, she could be best described as an ignorant and curious little girl who has a lot of growing up to do. She’s outgoing, curious to a fault, knows no shame, and ignorant about the world but she can be surprisingly perceptive, accepting, and able to make decisions when she needs to.

But let’s back up a little, shall we? Talitha may be very “old”, but in terms of gods she’s a baby. She’s never been exposed to the world, taught how it functions, and she doesn’t comprehend even the most basic things that people would perceive as common sense. (Like that touching things causes 'feeling', how to have manners, or even what is an invasible question.) She’s never interacted with people before meeting Eltanin so she doesn’t know how the world she created works. This can lead her to some off-color behavior.

She can dance when happy, scream when angry, kick, yell, or just do or say things that most adults would consider out of place. Talitha wears her heart on her sleeve, simply because she doesn't know that keeping thoughts or emotions to herself is something she should do.

Talitha is curious and eager to investigate things she doesn’t know. She’s constantly surprised over simple things that most take for granted—like night turning into day. But her investigations can result in odd or invasive behavior that others find extremely strange (Like invading personal space..) It may take some things blowing up in her face to learn lessons that she needs to know, but hey! That’s what learning is all about.

When she forms an opinion about how things are supposed to be, she sticks to that opinion no matter what. She can be very childish and can butt heads with others if they disagree. She’s based on the sign of an Aeries, after all, and they’re infamous for their stubbornness and sticking to their opinions. But that sign is also the most insecure. If she doesn’t feel secure, validated in her opinions, or loved then she can become quickly depressed. This can lead her to wanting people to ‘look at her’ so they can tell her what a good job she’s done.

Even though she likes exploring of her own accord, she can get frustrated when new things are thrust upon her without proper answers, like when she was given the goal to find out how to create life without a clear starting point of how she should find out. She’s a child that thinks in terms of black and white and doesn’t understand moral gray areas.

But to that extent she can be easily manipulated as well. When people tells her that things are a certain way she will believe them because she doesn’t know any other way. Talitha has never known mistrust or suspicion.

Under it all is a creative and perceptive girl who is trying to learn how the world works. Though there is many things she doesn’t know she is quick to learn and even quicker to experiment… Even if her experiments don't always work out. (like how a child is quick to learn a new word, then uses it incorrectly forever until they're told otherwise.)

Talitha needs to learn a lot to grow as a person, and she does grow over the other books in the series.

Abilities

Lifespan - Gods like Talitha are beings of energy, and therefor don't have a mortal form that can wear out. Because of this they can live for millions of years before they "die".

Lacking sensations - Again, most Gods don't have a physical form so they seldom feel physical sensations. They may still feel emotions but naturally they don't feel things like mortals do. This would differ for Talitha in Wake, but she could eventually bend it back.Unfortunately someone in Wake is going to have to teach her the hard life of being a mortal and FEELING things.Like pain. And hunger. And what is sleep. (Gods can always feel emotion, so she just lack physical senses.)

Plane leaping - Gods in training are able to make small "leaps" into other planes. There are three planes that exist: The mortal plane, the spiritual plane, and the dream plane. She isn’t a full-fledged god so she can only view these planes, not manipulate them.

Gods leap from one plane to the next by opening a small ‘gate’ and then literally..hopping through it. The colors and the scenery then around them would change to the plane they were hopping to. For example, Talitha could exist in the normal world then try to go to the dream world. She’d open a gate, hop on through it, then the world around her would look like a distorted version of the place she was just in. There could be monsters, weird buildings, etc.

Creation - much like bending, Talitha can create things through sheer will. She was able to manipulate stars, create planets, and start life with willpower. Though she couldn't do that in Wake, I think she'd naturally take to bending.